What is EASE History?
What are the system requirements for EASE History (Firewall issues etc)?
Why is EASE History important?
Who is EASE History’s target audience?
What is EASE?
What is the goal of this learning environment?
What are two metaphors that describe the system and its' use?
How have you used "what we know about learning" to build this system?
Why use campaign ads?
How long did it take to build the EASE system?
Why offer three different learning modes?
How were the ads coded?
How do the icons support learning?
What is the difference between a single and multiple themes search?
What is the difference between an 'and' and an 'or' search?
What are the learning sequences?
What’s next EASE History?
What is EASE History?
EASE History is a rich learning environment that supports the learning of US history. Over 600 videos and photographs are currently available in EASE History.
EASE History has three entry points: Historical Events, Campaign Ads, and Core Values. Learn about US History through the prism of US presidential campaign ads, better understand the complexities of campaign issues and their historical context by looking at historical events, and explore the meanings of core values by examining how these values have been applied in both historical events and campaign ads. Three learning modes, single and multiple theme searches, and resources support the comparing and contrasting of historical cases. EASE History's goal is to support experience acceleration- to help learners think more like historians.
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What are the system requirements for EASE History (Firewall issues etc)?
FlashPlayer 7:
Flash player 7 and a high-speed connection are required.
Check to see if you have the correct player by clicking on this link
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_15507(you should have version 7 or higher)
Browsers/OS:
PC users require Windows 2000 or XP and Internet Explorer 6 or above. Mac users require OS X or above and Safari 1.2 or above or Firefox. If using Internet Explorer on a Mac, you must have at least version 5.2. The site is optimized for a resolution of 1024x768. If audio and video is out of sync close other applications.
Firewall/Port issues (for system administrators):
Ease history makes use of Flash communication server to provide streaming video. If you have high speed internet and are not able to play the videos check your port settings. EASE History makes use of port 1935. Make sure this is open.
Go to this link to test your port settings.
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_16466
If you are using a web proxy server here is a tip from a network administrator. Set your proxy server to NOT proxy traffic for the EASE History domain (35.8.168.145) and add a firewall rule to allow outbound connections to be created on port 1935.
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Why is EASE History important?
It is an online learning environment that supports flexibly adaptive thinking, the learning of difficult material, and open-mindedness; the learning attributes that a complex world require.
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Who is EASE History's target audience?
EASE History is an "open" learning environment in that it can handle many different kinds of questions. The environment can be used to learn about history, from a beginner or a more advanced perspective, using video clips of historical events. A learning guide has been designed to support its use in classrooms grades 6-12.
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What is EASE?
EASE stands for Experience Acceleration Supportive Environment. We want to help learners get quickly up the learning curve. This is an open learning environment that holds the EASE History content.
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What is the goal of this learning environment?
EASE History’s goal, which mirrors that of the Cognitive Flexibility Theory, is to prepare learners to become more flexibly adaptive thinkers. Flexibly adaptive thinkers are well informed, open-minded, and creative. Working in EASE History, learners see that there are no simple answers or one best example; that variability exists through real world examples. Our fight is against reductionism, the inclination towards simplicity and order.
We believe that the assembly of knowledge, comparing, and contrasting, and the making of connections can occur much faster inside the system’s interfaces. One of the strengths of this system is that learners are able to encounter ideas before large discussions take place, and use the system to make their thinking visible when presenting.
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What are two metaphors that describe the system and its' use?
Crisscrossing the landscape: EASE History is a Cognitive Flexibility Hypermedia (CFH) system that supports the criss-crossing of the cognitive and historical landscape.
See the branches through the leaves: There is a saying that 'it is hard to see the forest through the trees,' meaning that it is easier to see what is right in front of us than it is for us to see the big picture. It is important to do both see the world up close and from above. Besides not being able to see the forest through the trees, it is hard sometimes to see the branches through the leaves. Sometimes the leaves on our trees of knowledge are so full that it is hard to see how ideas within a domain and across domains are connected and supportive of one another. The goal of this learning environment is to help learners build stronger networks and learn the hard stuff.
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How have you used "what we know about learning" to build this system?
This system is based on the principles of Cognitive Flexibility Theory, a learning theory created by Rand Spiro. EASE History is a CFH system that embraces the idea that learning does not proceed in one direction and that computers support this type of learning.
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Why use campaign ads?
Presidential campaign ads are short dense clips. Campaign ads act as entry points to learn about issues like presidential leadership attributes and historical events.
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How long did it take to build the EASE system?
We started building the EASE system in the fall of 2002. Work on EASE History began in July of 2003.
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Why offer three different learning modes?
In order to give learners more control over their learning environment EASE History offers three different learning modes: the View, Compare, and Weave interfaces. The View interface features one video and enables learners to focus on a single ad. The Compare interface enables learners to place two videos side by side. The Weave interface allows learners to work with four videos at a time raising the number of possible connections that can be easily noticed and facilitating the development of more advance understanding.
We believe that each interface has different affordances. The View interface supports ad analysis when learners want to focus on the persuasive techniques in one ad. It acts as our default interface. The Compare supports two case comparisons. Oftentimes learners feel more comfortable working in the View and Compare before working in the Weave interface.
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How were the ads coded?
The coding of these ads will evolve. New themes will be added, and ads will be recoded. For example there were ads that could have been either negative or positive. The glossary attempts to define the themes.
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How do the icons support learning?
Icons appear on the campaign ads and historical clips in EASE History. Through these icons users can access related campaign ads and historical clips, candidate profiles, election results, and ad analysis. These icons support the understanding of historical context and help learners see how events are connected.
There are five different icons used in EASE History.
Interview icon: These ‘expert’ interviews offer multiple perspectives, helping help learners understand how experts in the field have analyzed the case.
Learning sequences icon: These sequences use learning effects to have a deeper understanding of leadership, the bandwagon effect, and camera angles.
Related clips icon: Related clips are responses from the opposing campaign, a companion clip from the candidate’s own campaign, or an historical event. Related clips have their own set of icons, enabling learners to choose different routes and make different connections.
Back button: The back button allows users to retrace their steps or step back within the system.
Artifacts icon: Candidate profiles, electoral maps, Annenberg Fact Check articles, and election results are available through the artifacts icon. Artifacts appear in a pop up box, while interview, learning sequences, and related clips appear inside the video player.
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What is the difference between a single and multiple themes search?
Two features that help people to develop more complex understandings are the simple or advanced themes searches.
The user can perform simple searches, which enables the learner to search on a single theme. A menu is available on the left side of the interface. The higher-level categories are visible in the main menu. Users can see the lower order categories by rolling over the buttons on the Main Menu.
By clicking on the advanced theme search on the main menu, users can search on multiple themes and then see how themes interact. Refining multiple theme searches is often necessary because searching on a single theme like negative ads will call up over sixty clips. To refine the search the user may want to search on negative ads in 2004 in the advanced themes search page. At this point a more manageable set of clips is cued up.
The Index page can be organized by election year or by candidates. Users can click on multiple clips in the index page. This feature is especially useful when presenting 4-part stories and 8-part essays.
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What is the difference between an 'and' and an 'or' search?
Suppose you want to look for ads that are coded on negative ads, economy, and 1992. An ‘and’ search will call up only clips that were coded on these three themes. An ‘or’ search would call up all negative ads, all economy ads, and all 1992 ads. This would result in a cue list that would be too long to work with. An ‘or’ search is useful when you want to compare two different election years. You need to do an ‘or’ search to compare the 2004 ads to 1964 ads. An ‘or’ search will bring up all the ads from 2004 and 1964. An ‘and’ search for 2004 and 1964 will not bring up any clips since there are no ads that appeared in both the 2004 and 1964 elections.
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What are the learning sequences?
Learning sequences help people learn the hard stuff. Learning sequences fight known misconceptions by helping learners see below the surface and revisit cases from multiple perspectives. Learning sequences are available through ads and in the Index page.
Version one of EASE History features learning sequences on leadership, the bandwagon effect, and camera angles.
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What's next EASE History?
We will be running experiments to see if the environment is helping users become better informed, more open-minded, and more creative.
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